Frederique van Baarle is moving up to the Management Board of Cologne-based specialty chemicals company LANXESS. The Supervisory Board has appointed the 51-year-old as Labor Director. She takes over this function from Management Board member Anno Borkowsky.

Van Baarle currently heads the High Performance Materials business unit at LANXESS, which is to be incorporated into a planned joint venture for high-performance plastics with private equity firm Advent.

She will take up her new position on the Management Board as soon as this transaction is completed. Van Baarle will also assume board responsibility for the Americas region from the second half of 2023. She will perform her new role from Pittsburgh, LANXESS' U.S. headquarters.

"Frederique van Baarle has led one of our largest business units very successfully. She knows LANXESS like only a few others. I am very much looking forward to working with her on the Board of Management. The fact that she will perform her duties from the U.S. underscores how important this growth market is for us," LANXESS CEO Matthias Zachert said. 

Frederique van Baarle began her career in the chemical industry in 2000 at the Dutch company Royal DSM after studying business administration, earning an MBA and graduating from the French business school INSEAD. At Royal DSM she held various management positions.

In 2011, she joined LANXESS and took on various management positions in sales and marketing in the then High Performance Elastomers business unit and in the business unit High Performance Materials. The native Dutchwoman was responsible for central purchasing and logistics at LANXESS since the end of 2018. She has been heading the High Performance Materials business unit since June 2020.